Thursday, March 30, 2017

Judith Bergman : Switzerland: Chocolate, Watches and Jihad

Switzerland: Chocolate, Watches and Jihad

Swiss authorities are currently investigating 480 suspected jihadists in the country.

"Radical imams always preached in the An-Nur Mosque... Those
responsible are fanatics. It is no coincidence that so many young people
from Winterthur wanted to do jihad." — Saïda Keller-Messahli, president
of Forum for a Progressive Islam.

Switzerland is the answer to those who claim that Islamic
terrorism is reserved for those countries that have participated in
operations against ISIS or other Muslim terror organizations.
Switzerland has done neither, yet its flag figured among sixty other
enemy flags shown in an ISIS propaganda video.

"Huge sums of money from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates,
Qatar, Kuwait and Turkey are flowing to Switzerland... There is a whole
network of radically-oriented mosques in Switzerland. The Muslim World
League is behind it.... The network is a hub for Salafists. The Swiss
authorities make a big mistake of not looking into the mosques." — Saïda
Keller-Messahli.

There are around 70 Turkish mosques financed directly from Turkey through the Diyanet Foundation in Switzerland.

The Swiss government appears to give Qatar, one of the primary
propagators of Wahhabi Salafism in the world today, extremely special
treatment.

In November 2016, Swiss police arrested
the imam of the an'Nur mosque in Winterthur, in the canton of Zürich,
for calling for the murder of Muslims who refuse to participate in
communal prayer. The young imam, who had come from Ethiopia, had been in
Switzerland for only a short time. The Zurich Federation of Islamic
Organizations (Vioz) declared
it was "shocked", and suspended the an'Nur mosque from the federation
until further notice: "We are shocked that an imam in one of our houses
of prayer called for violence."

There is little cause for "shock". Already in 2015, Winterthur made
headlines in Switzerland as an emerging center for young Muslims with
jihadi ambitions. Four people from Winterthur managed to travel to Syria
to join ISIS and a fifth was stopped at the airport in Zürich.

In November 2015, Swiss journalist and Syria expert, Kurt Pelda said,
"The IS has a cell in Winterthur in the vicinity of the An'Nur Mosque
in Hegi, there is no longer any doubt." He also said that in addition to
the five known cases, another man from Winterthur had travelled to
Syria as well.

The former president of the Islamic Cultural Association of An'Nur, Atef Sahoun, denied all claims at the time:

"If we discover radical tendencies in one member, then
the appropriate person will be immediately excluded. We send them away,
no matter who it is".

Atef Sahoun was arrested for incitement in November 2016, along with the Ethiopian imam, but later released.

"Radical imams always preached in the An-Nur Mosque...
Those responsible are fanatics. It is no coincidence that so many young
people from Winterthur wanted to do jihad".

In November 2015, Swiss police carried out a raid on the homes of two
imams at the biggest mosque in Switzerland, the Geneva Mosque, which
was inaugurated in 1978 by the former king of Saudi Arabia. The mosque
is run by a foundation, Fondation Culturelle Islamique de Genève, which
appears to have close ties to Saudi Arabia. While French police refused to comment on the raids or allegations
surrounding the imams, a Swiss paper reported, "...a group of around 20
young extremists had attended the mosque for several months, two of
whom allegedly travelled to Syria".

Swiss authorities are currently investigating
480 suspected jihadists in the country. Switzerland is thus an
excellent answer to those who still claim Islamic terrorism is reserved
for those countries which have participated in operations against ISIS
or other Muslim terror organizations. Switzerland has done neither, yet
its flag figured among sixty other enemy flags shown in an ISIS propaganda video.

Who funds the approximately 250 mosques in Switzerland? The Swiss government does not know,
at least officially, as it has no jurisdiction to collect data on the
financing of Muslim associations and mosques except in exceptional cases
where internal security is threatened.

Doris Fiala is a center-right parliamentarian, who has urged
authorities to create transparency. She wants to list every association
that benefits from foreign money in a commercial registry, its accounts
supervised by an independent cantonal authority and auditor. In
response to her requests, the cabinet told her:

"It is nonetheless common knowledge that governmental
organizations and private individuals send donations from abroad. But
the Federal Intelligence Service does not currently have any information
on possible external funding of mosques that could affect the
protection of the State."

According to Reinhard Schulze, professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Bern:

"There are undoubtedly structured contacts between the
Muslim World League and certain Islamic organizations in Switzerland.
Donations from the World League and other funds coming from Saudi Arabia
are given to those mosques and organizations that are open to the
Wahhabi tradition".

Money from Saudi Arabia reaches
Switzerland in various ways, according to Schulze. One example is the
European Organization of Islamic Centers (EOIC), founded in Geneva by an
Algerian in 2015, which has as its single goal the financing of the
infrastructure of Muslim institutions, and the training and employment
of imams.

"Huge sums of money from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates,
Qatar, Kuwait and Turkey are flowing to Switzerland", Saïda
Keller-Messahli, told the newspaper NZZ in November. According to Keller-Messahli, the an'Nur mosque is not a unique example of a "radical" Swiss mosque:

"There is a whole network of radically-oriented mosques
in Switzerland. The Muslim World League is behind it, training young
imams and sending them out into the world. These are true wandering
preachers, who are not only active in Switzerland, but also in Austria,
Germany, Norway and Denmark. The network is a hub for Salafists. The
Swiss authorities make a big mistake of not looking into the mosques.
The image of the pitiful backyard mosques is no longer true. Currently,
new mosques are being built at the cost of several million francs, most
recently in Volketswil, Netstal and Wil. The idea that these amounts
come from members of the mosques is simply a lie - they come from the
Muslim World League and its organizations, for example in Geneva, with
the clear intention of spreading Salafist thought here".

Furthermore, there are around 70 Turkish mosques,
which are financed directly from Turkey through the Diyanet Foundation
in Switzerland. The most important ones are in Zurich, Lucerne, St.
Gallen, Lugano, Biel, Freiburg and Neuchâtel.
In addition, the Swiss government appears to give Qatar, one of the
primary propagators of Wahhabi Salafism in the world today, extremely
special treatment. Qatar has invested billions
of Swiss francs in Switzerland: Already in 2008, it invested 6 billion
francs in Credit Suisse and the former emir's son is on the board of
directors of the bank. It holds 8.42 percent of the shares of the
commodity group Glencore Xstrata and 4.11 percent of the rice retailer
Dufry. Qatar even has a bank of its own, the QNB Banque Privée Suisse,
which operates in Geneva. Apart from these investments, Qatar has
invested heavily in the Swiss hotel industry, where it is continuing to
grow its influence. It is currently spending one billion Swiss francs on
acquiring and renovating three luxury hotels and resorts in Switzerland
in Lausanne, Berne and near Lucerne, known as the "Bürgenstock
Selection" project. The largest of the three is a resort, high above
Lake Lucerne, where three hotels, ten luxury villas and dozens of
apartments are being built. In the words of Die Welt, "Qatar is building its own village" in Switzerland.

Most telling of all, perhaps, is a small occurrence, which took place at the end of December. Die Welt reported
that the Swiss air force allowed the former Emir of Qatar, Hamad Bin
Khalifa al-Thani, to land in the middle of the night at Zürich airport,
despite the existing night flying ban. The 64-year-old Khalifa al-Thani
had broken a leg on holiday in Morocco, and insisted on being flown to
Switzerland immediately, not caring in the least that no one is allowed
to land in Zürich between three and six o'clock in the morning. The
Swiss Air Force nevertheless agreed to the landing, basing its decision
on a "medical emergency". Just before six, two more airplanes – this
time from Doha, the capital of Qatar - landed, also during the flight
ban.

The Swiss government, evidently, does not mind the ruling family of
Qatar treating Switzerland as an extension of Qatar – and that really
sums up perfectly the ongoing Islamization of Switzerland.

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